Dope-selling fake cop gets probation

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A San Mateo man who went on a one-man crime wave after celebrating his birthday has been released from custody and placed on five years’ probation.

On Dec. 6, the day he turned 19, Allen Grabovetsky pulled over a woman in Millbrae while driving his parents’ pickup truck, outfitted with a siren and flashing red lights. He told her she had been speeding “and asked for money to let her go,” said San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

When the woman became suspicious, Grabovetsky “let her go with a warning but demanded she call him ‘officer,’ ” Wagstaffe said.

A few minutes later, Grabovetsky tried to pull over a car with an airline pilot and flight attendant on Highway 101 as they were on their way to San Francisco International Airport, Wagstaffe said. The two also didn’t believe he was a real cop, got the license plate number of his truck and called police.

Grabovetsky allegedly pulled over two more drivers, one on Highway 1, the other in a theater parking lot in Redwood City, but they didn’t believe he was an officer either. Finally, a Redwood City police officer — a real one – found Grabovetsky driving in the area and cited him.

That same day, Grabovetsky approached a 15-year-old girl outside the Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo. He put his hands on her knees and asked how old she was, Wagstaffe said. When she said 15, he allegedly replied, “It’s OK with me. … Come on, baby, we can go back to my truck.”

Four days later, Grabovetsky tried to sell marijuana to someone on the Hillsdale train platform. He told officers who arrested him that he was in the military and that they should let him go, Wagstaffe said.

Then, Dec. 16, an 18-year-old friend of Grabovetsky’s began getting threatening text messages from him, including ones that read, “I’m going to literally put a knife through your head,” “I’m going to murder you” and “I’m going to show up and kill your parents,” authorities said.

Grabovetsky pleaded no contest in July to impersonating a police officer, possession of marijuana for sale and stalking, all felonies, as well as a misdemeanor charge of child sexual annoyance, for which he must register as a sex offender.

At a hearing Friday, Judge Robert Foiles gave Grabovetsky credit for 279 days served in jail and released him from custody.

The judge ordered Grabovetsky not to drive any vehicles with sirens or overhead lights.